Bringing some Balance to Life

Bear with me on the sparse posting, as the family fun just keeps on coming. I hope to be Trekking soon. Meanwhile, someone I know, who should have known better, sent an interesting link to a tale about the man who built coral castle in Florida.

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa071999.htm

The mystery is surrounded by the usual calls of paranormal feats of fantasy and imagination. This single man, Edward Leedskalnin, managed this work alone. Amazing.

• An obelisk he raised weighs 28 tons.
• The wall surrounding Coral Castle stands 8 ft. tall and consists of large blocks each weighing several tons.
• Large stone crescents are perched atop 20-ft.-high walls.
• A 9-ton swinging gate that moves at the touch of a finger guards the eastern wall.
• The largest rock on the property weighs an estimated 35 tons.
• Some stones are twice the weight of the largest blocks in the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Well people were so impressed, they had to come up with some impressive hypothesis. Some of these include observations like:

• The singing of levitation spells
• Invisible patterns of energy lines surrounding the Earth which concentrates points of telluric power where they intersect. (Whatever the hell that means.)
• Measurements from the Coral Castle position to the zero-degree and 90-degree longitude lines, when they passed through the equator, also yielded harmonics related to light and gravity.
• And so on...

Now, yours truly just does not buy any of this new age crap. I must say, the concept of a single person achieving the tasks listed above is impressive for sure. I was convinced he used physics to do it.

Well, it does look like someone else proved that simple physics is capable, given the correct sequencing and planning. Some of you may have seen him on Discovery. Since I do not watch much TV, I may be behind the eight ball. His name is W.T. Wallington, a carpenter. He is not a rocket scientist, but a person with years of trade experience, and a boat load of curiosity. Go visit his site here,

http://www.theforgottentechnology.com

Watch the elegantly simple principles of balance, counterbalance, pivot and leverage move enormous masses with minimal labor. No magic lines of force. No mysterious fantasmagorical magic spells. No advanced computer mathematics. He just used simple principles, and empirical experimentation. Check out the rolling square block and the counter weight methods. He also observed that the larger the mass, the easier it is to achieve a useable point of counterbalance.

He has some moving pictures on the site. Firefox has some difficulty. I.E. and Safari seem to work with a bit of cajoling.

This is why I have enormous respect for people outside of academia. This is why so many people, who get out there and roll up their sleeves, are so important to our innovative spirit. I am convinced this is how the Egyptians got the job done.

By the way, your continued support is greatly appreciated.



Here are a couple of additional voting booths, since you asked nicely:

Point Five
Radioactive Liberty

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